Month: February 2011

The Outrage Of Rick Scott, John Kasich, And Scott Walker: Rejection of High Speed Rail Train Funds For Future Infrastructure Economic Growth! :(

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It is shocking news that Florida Governor Rick Scott has joined Ohio Governor John Kasich and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in the rejection of billions of dollars of high speed rail train funds for future Infrastructure economic growth! 🙁

This all comes after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has rejected the building of new interstate roads between the high traffic states of New Jersey and New York.

Building and expanding transportation infrastructure is crucial for future economic growth and prosperity and the continued rapid growth of our population, and many European countries and Japan and South Korea are way ahead of us in that regard.

And yet these four Republican Governors, already infamous for attempting to crack down on public service employees and destroy labor rights, including collective bargaining, are so short sighted that they will reject federal funding, which will simply go elsewhere.

The Democratic Governors of New York and California has open arms extended to accept money rejected by these other states. Andrew Cuomo and Jerry Brown are not about to reject the chance for further long range economic growth, and it is essential for the future that the nation rely more on trains to cut down automobile traffic and save energy.

Florida could have had $2.4 billion to develop high speed train traffic between Orlando and Tampa, the high traffic corridor of I-4, and even many Republicans in the state, along with Democrats, including Senator Bill Nelson, are going to work to get the project done by working around the state government.

Scott took the lead of his Tea Party supporters, and is rejecting the future. In six weeks in office, Rick Scott has come across as a total “train wreck”, no pun intended, and yet there is no state mechanism to push for his recall, as only 18 states allow recall, and Florida is not one of them! 🙁

It is clear that Scott is going to be a very controversial and divisive Governor, and the question is how much his own party in the Florida legislature will fight him before he destroys the future of the Sunshine State! 🙁

The Birther Movement And The Republican Party

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The “Birther” movement is still alive and well, the idea that President Barack Obama is not a citizen of the United States, that he is foreign born in Kenya, and that he is a secret Muslim.

Hawaii has made available birth certificate evidence, and the newspapers in Hawaii published announcement of his birth in August 1961, but still that is not seen as acceptable by many who refuse to accept the truth and the evidence.

This is an insult to the President, and no other President has had to deal with it, but what is more shocking is that a Public Policy Polling questioning of so called Republican primary voters shows that 51 percent are believers in the “birther” conspiracy theory, while 21 percent are not sure what to believe, and only 28 percent believe for certain that Obama is a citizen and born in the United States.

This mythology is further promoted by the reluctance of Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to condemn it, while saying they take the President and the state of Hawaii at their word. Both refuse to say how ridiculous an idea it is, and as leaders, they are passing the buck, rather than take responsibility to nip the idea in the bud.

All of a sudden, these two GOP leaders are saying they cannot tell people what to think, even though it is clear that they are indeed trying to promote uniformity in their opposition to anything Barack Obama says or does.

They are, therefore, contributing to the perpetuation of the myth, and showing they have no ethics at all, and they should both be condemned and also be made to feel ashamed of their improper behavior! 🙁

And another idea comes across one’s mind: Do we really want anyone chosen by these Republican primary voters to become President of the United States in 2013? 🙁

Wisconsin Rises Against Scott Walker’s Threat Of National Guard Intervention Over Public Workers Losing Labor Rights

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Wisconsin, the home of progressivism and Robert La Follette, Sr. a century ago, came through today in a proud tradition of backing labor rights and public employees, with thousands of people descending on the state capital, Madison, in peaceful protests against Governor Scott Walker’s threat of employing the National Guard, as he works to force through the loss of workers’ rights and heavy cuts in pay for state workers to cover health care and pension benefits guaranteed by contract! 🙁

High school and college students joined their teachers and professors, and other state employees, including firefighters, paramedics, police officers, prison guards and others joined them in a massive protest against the strong arm tactics being utilized by Governor Walker.

This may be the equivalent of an American “Egypt”, a beginning of public protest against a Republican Party on the state and national level attempting to destroy everything that has been gained since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal! 🙁

If Wisconsin is able to move ahead and destroy workers’ rights, then it will happen in Ohio, New Jersey, Florida and everywhere. This reminds those of us who remember what it was like in the 1960s when the American people marched for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam.

The quality of public service, and particularly of education of the future generation, will rapidly decline if the attack on workers’ rights by GOP governors is allowed to stand.

This is a battle for the future, while the GOP only is concerned about the elite upper class and the corporations! The country will never be the same if the right wing wins this struggle to return to the past of the 1920s and the Gilded Age! 🙁

Barack Obama’s And Sarah Palin’s Effect On The Republican Presidential Race

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Here it is mid February, less than a year to the Iowa caucuses, and not one Republican has announced for President.

Instead, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence has announced that he will NOT run, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has indicated that while he will not run in 2012, he is leaving the door open for 2016.

Why is no one announcing?

Well, it may be that many potential candidates see a race against President Obama as a difficult one, which indeed it will be. While the Republicans gained 63 seats in the House of Representatives in 2010, that is no indication that they have an edge in the Presidential race, and the fact that they control the House makes the President able to use them as a foil, and Obama is certain, eventually, to attack the Republicans on domestic policy, and to use foreign policy as a bulwark for his campaign for re-election. It should not be surprising that Jeb Bush prefers to wait to 2016 when there would be an open race without an incumbent, if one assumes Obama has the edge for 2012.

Remember that Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bill Clinton won re-election despite BOTH houses being in the hands of the opposition party in the midterm election!

But also, the uncertainty about Sarah Palin, whether she will run, also muddies up the race.

Palin is looking weak in the polls, and it is hard to imagine she will give up the money making opportunities she now has to run, with the knowledge her earnings would be badly hit while she is a candidate for the White House. But she has just hired a top campaign strategist, and feels a need to react to every slight or criticism of her, including recent ones by fellow Republicans Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum and John Thune. Since they are not leading candidates at this point, they have decided to gamble on light criticism or teasing of Palin, but others seen as more serious candidates, including Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, have, so far, avoided such criticism.

But Palin is the so called “800 pound elephant” in the room, and that, along with Obama’s growing strength and the feeling that he has an edge for re-election, is contributing to the fact that candidates so far are reluctant to stick their necks out and announce they are running.

Still, within the next three months, it will be necessary for candidates to announce themselves, in order to have a realistic chance to gain support and financial backing, so whether Obama looks as strong as he does now, or Palin stays out or comes into the race, the die is cast in the sense that announcement of candidacies can only be delayed so far without being seen as no longer serious contenders!

The Hypocrisy Of Mitch McConnell And Rand Paul! :(

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul, both from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, represent one of the poorest states in the Union, and yet both are believers in limited government and talk about balancing the budget no matter how much it hurts their own constituents.

But in actual fact, despite their rhetoric, Kentucky is a leading “welfare” state!

According to the conservative Tax Foundation, Kentucky gains back $1.51 for every dollar they send to the US government! Other so called “conservative” states also receive much more back than they contribute.

Imagine this: it is the “blue” states, that are accused of reckless budgets, who actually are cheated by the US government!

For instance, California gets back only 81 cents for every dollar sent to the national government, while Illinois gets 75 cents, New York gets 79 cents, and Connecticut even less with only 69 cents!

So the ‘blue” states are cheated in favor of the “red” states, even though they claim to be against welfare and handouts!

If it was not for the wealthier states contributing to Kentucky and other Southern and Western states that are poorer, those “red” states would be even worse off than they are!

But at the least, could we not expect Senators McConnell and Paul to be more honest and admit that they do truly believe in welfare and handouts, as long as their residents are not paying for it?

Anything less is HYPOCRISY! So what is new? 🙁

The Koch Brothers And Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia And Clarence Thomas

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Charles and David Koch are billionaire brothers who are against environmental regulations and any government regulation in any area of the economy, and they have a close relationship with Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court.

Both Justices attended a conference sponsored by the Koch brothers and were paid expenses, and the Citizens United Case which allows unlimited corporate political contributions was the result in January 2010, which had a dramatic effect on the midterm elections this past November, leading to the addition of 63 new seats in the House of Representatives for the Republican Party.

Now Thomas is being asked to recuse himself from any Supreme Court review of the Health Care law passed last year, as his wife is involved with a pressure group working to undermine the law, along with the Koch brothers trying to overturn the law as well.

The Supreme Court is becoming a center of conflict of interest, and really a high level of corruption, as both Justices Scalia and Thomas are arrogant and have no sense of propriety in their behavior. When on the Supreme Court, Justices are supposed to avoid conflicts or influences that may poison or pollute the whole concept of fair justice.

Thomas and Scalia need to change their behavior, or they bring the reputation of the Supreme Court down into the gutter! 🙁

Threats Of National Guard Use Against State Workers Unions In Wisconsin: Deplorable! :(

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As written about by this author a few days ago, Republican Governors and state legislatures are declaring war on government workers–teachers, prison guards, police officers, firefighters, nurses, paramedics, social workers, sanitation workers, librarians and office workers–and setting out to destroy the rights of dedicated workers to have union representation and collective bargaining rights! 🙁

The imposition of pension and health care payments in large amounts on all these workers, plus cutting or freezing of wages, will throw many of these public servants out of the middle class, and in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker has threatened to call out the National Guard to use force against protesting workers and their demonstrations! 🙁

Is this threat of use of force against state workers to be seen as anything less than imposing dictatorial control over the labor force, and setting out to destroy all labor rights won over the past century in Wisconsin and nationwide? 🙁

Wisconsin, the center of progressivism, the home of Governor Robert LaFollette, Sr, one of the great leaders of the progressive reform movement, now is faced with a leader who is nothing less than a fascist in his approach to labor rights, by threatening violence against the right of assembly! 🙁

Wisconsin is only one of many states with Governors who are “bullies” against labor rights and freedom of expression, including Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, Governor Rick Scott of Florida, and Governor John Kasich of Ohio, all of whom are threatening and imposing similar crackdowns on labor, although none yet have threatened the National Guard use that Scott Walker has suggested in Wisconsin.

Recall elections are allowed in Wisconsin and New Jersey, and action should be taken immediately to implement such an election.

Altogether, 18 states allow recall of state government officials, but sadly, not Florida and Ohio. 🙁

This is a sad, tragic situation that will only have the effect of undermining loyalty and commitment of state workers all around the country, and the American people will see the deleterious effect over time of what the Republican Governors are doing all over the country! 🙁

What The Republican Party Refuses To Recognize! :(

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The Republican Party refuses to understand that even if ALL discretionary non defense spending is eliminated, it does not come anywhere near the problem of resolving the deficit.

The only way is to RAISE taxes on the wealthy and corporations, back to the level under Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the 1950s, a level over 70 percent, rather than the 36.5 percent that the wealthy now pay. Plus corporations must not be allowed to have an effective tax rate of 10 percent after all the loopholes and accounting tricks that cut most of their tax responsibility!

What kind of country cuts educational opportunity, allows poor people to freeze in the winter, makes lawlessness easier in urban neighborhoods by cutting police forces down, lets states destroy labor rights hard earned over 80 and more years, shows no concern for the welfare of children, cuts back on promotion of clean water and air, etc? 🙁

We are trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poorest in our society, and making the middle class slip into poverty, all because of the greed and selfishness of the wealthy and multinational corporations who do not give a damn about anyone but themselves! 🙁

But the national debt and deficit will never be resolved until the upper class follow John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural statement: “Ask not what your country can for you, ask what you can do for your country!”

If the elite rich and corporations do not wake up, they will face the threat of social and economic turmoil which could lead to violence and bloodshed, a horrible thought!

We are all in this together, and it is time that the elite paid their fair share of the burden of making this country work, and return to a stable economy!

Assessment Of CPAC Winners

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There are many different ways to look at the CPAC meeting in Washington, DC this past weekend, as to who looks better or who advanced himself by his or her presentation.

It seems to this blogger that Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty came across as the best, in the sense that both should be taken more seriously after their substantive speeches.

Newt Gingrich is an intellectual heavyweight as a former professor, but while he inspired the crowd, it is hard to see him as someone who can actually overcome his many shortcomings, including being out of office for 14 years by 2012.

Mitt Romney did his usual presentation, and is probably the front runner in theory, but also has major problems ahead to win the nomination.

John Thune, who may not run, came across as a promising new face.

With Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin not at the CPAC, the others advanced somewhat just by that fact.

But it is clear the GOP race for President is wide open, and do not forget Jon Huntsman, former Ambassador to China, who is expected to run, and could have a real appeal as a centrist in a party going too far to the right for the election campaign!

Indications That Right Wing Hate Talk Is Losing Its Following: John Avlon

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It could be that the age of Right Wing Hate Talk Radio is starting to decline, as younger people are not drawn to that as much as older white people, who are drawn to it by their fear of Barack Obama and change.

Glenn Beck is losing listeners in key markets as he continues to spread hate and paranoia, making sane people realize how he is unconcerned about promoting hysteria and fear as long as he can make millions of dollars. There are some indications that Fox News Channel is starting to lose its enthusiasm for Beck, as well.

Rush Limbaugh is also losing support, as his maniacal behavior and ridiculous accusations, along with his pure disrespect of public figures, is beginning to turn people off.

Sean Hannity and Mark Levin are also finding less receptive radio audiences, and Hannity is seen as more hypocritical than ever, as he goes to Republican events and ties himself to the GOP propaganda line.

Rather than the propaganda coming from these and other right wing talk show hosts, more than ever those who listen or watch political shows want independent, intelligent analysis and political humor, which helps Jon Stewart gain a great following on Comedy Channel, as he shows the craziness and hypocrisy of these talk show hosts. Stephen Colbert is also very effective in demonstrating the shortcomings and narrow mindedness of Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin and others.

John Avlon, who first came up with the term “wingnuts” to refer to these talk show hosts and many of the Tea Party political candidates, is to be thanked for having uncovered the reality that the right wing propaganda is, seemingly, on a decline and will be far less significant over the next five years!